Page 80 - Lighting Magazine April 2019

on the mark
“Blogging allows your audience to discover your showroom from the comfort of their digital device, wherever they are.”
Mark Okun is Business Contributor to enLIGHTenment Magazine and President of Mark Okun Consulting & Performance Group. He has more than 30 years of hands- on retail experience training and coaching sales associates in the lighting and furniture industries. Mark@bravo businessmedia.com
serve, having a consistently posted blog speci c to your marketplace, services, and product categories will make you the authority in your niche.
Many showrooms like and share posts from magazines, vendors, and clients, but while this sup- ports the “like and share to show you care” tactic, it should be a small part of your e orts. It does li le to claim your stake in the market as the expert.
Another misstep I see being made is showrooms, reps, and manufacturers using platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others as the storerooms for their content instead keeping that content on their own websites and then distribut- ing it through the variety of social media platforms. The goal of good content is to drive eyes to your website based on the information.
Please know that the “Sale!” message does not have the same call-to-action e ect that it has had in the past. Transactional marketing e orts no longer bring in the foot tra c showrooms need to survive or the revenue that they want. The new end game is to build relationships that are outwardly directed at the customer.
Blogging allows your audience to discover your showroom from the comfort of their digital device, wherever they are. This builds trust because you are the source of the information they are looking for. Consumers want to be informed, and blogging on a consistent basis does that.
wHaT To bloG
It’s easy to say you need a blog and leave it at
that, but that provides no value. Every client has unspoken questions we need to answer, and these questions become your writing prompts. Questions such as:
 Why should I give you my business?
The answer can be based on your value proposi- tion, the service level you provide, or even that the showroom is a cornerstone of the community for generations.
 What makes you di erent?
The answer to this question can in uence the client’s decision to buy brick rather than to click. This is your unique value-add to the sale and the customer.
 How are problems handled?
Provide examples of problems that can occur and how the showroom handles them. Extend this thinking beyond explaining how issues are dealt with and tell a story about a real situation where the showroom came to the aid of the client in a way that went beyond expectations.
As the silos of sales and marketing meld, I feel these ideas cover some of the tools available to help showrooms with their marketing. At the least, it’s a comfortable place to start to take control and become your own ad agency.
As always, Happy Selling!  www.enlightenmentmag.com
76 enLIGHTenment Magazine | april 2019